UK will opt out of EAWs warns Home Secretary

Britain’s relationship with Europe in policing matters will be reviewed following the Home Secretary’s announcement that the UK will opt out of 130 EU measures, including the European Arrest Warrant (EAW).

Theresa May said the Government wanted to repatriate the measures  in law and order left open for review following Tony Blair’s signing of the Lisbon Treaty in 2007. Measures that could be repatriated include the EAW, while British involvement in the European Policing Forum (Europol) may also be affected.

EAWs have proven especially divisive, with supporters citing their successes in the arrest of terrorist suspects and Jeremy Forrest, the schoolteacher who eloped to France with 15-year-old pupil Megan Stammers earlier this month, while opponents counter with cases such as Andrew Symeou, the British student held for four years in a Greek jail before being released without charge due to lack of evidence.
The Government must either opt out all of the available measures or hand responsibility for them over to Brussels, but Mrs May said she would seek to opt back into some at a later date.

The move to seek to pull out of the EAW and other measures has caused friction between the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservatives and their Liberal Democrat coalition partners. Prime Minister David Cameron said last month he would back the opt-out, with some Tory MPs threatening a total withdrawal from the EU should such a move fail, but Nick Clegg claimed no decision has yet been made.

Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott accused the Conservatives of pandering to the Tory and UKIP Eurosceptics, adding: “It’s a gift to criminals across Europe if we throw our toys out of the pram on the EAW and then try to put them back in again one by one.”

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper criticised Mrs May’s stance, accusing the Government of “putting internal party management and coalition horse-trading ahead of crime fighting and the interests of victims”, labelling the desire to opt back into some measures as “hokey-cokey” politics.

“The EAW has seen nearly 600 criminals returned to the UK to face justice for their crimes. It has also allowed 4,000 citizens from other European countries suspected of crimes to be sent back home or elsewhere in Europe to face justice too – 94 per cent of people sent back to other European countries to face trial under the EAW are foreign citizens.

“The Association of Chief Police Officers has described the EAW as ‘much quicker, simpler and cheaper’ than previous systems.”

She added: “The Tories must not make it easier for international criminals to flee justice, letting victims down. As cross-border travel and cross-border crime are growing, law enforcement agencies in Britain need certainty and support in the fight against crime.”